Wednesday, 9 February 2011

Which is more important - club or country?

Yet again FIFA President Sepp Blatter has been causing controversy on the age old question of which is more important in football, club or country?

Mr Blatter, head of the world game, has always been very forthright in his views that the international game is of paramount importance and that club football takes a comparative back seat.

Now I don't know anything about running the sport of football but I do think that Blatter is massively out of touch with the vast majority of regular supporters.

I have been going to see Leicester City with varying degrees of regularity for over twenty years. In that time I have never met a single fan who would rather see England get to the final of a championship over the Foxes winning the championship.

Simply put, to a football fan club always comes first.

How can we adore players in the national jersey that otherwise week in week out we heckle and jeer in the league?

Sure, we would all like our national team to be successful but first and foremost our hearts belong to OUR club.

Football is tribal. Most of us support our hometown clubs and we love seeing local lads progressing to the first team, young men who maybe stood on the terraces alongside us as kids.

There is nothing better than besting your local rivals. How could winning the European Championship ever compare to having bragging rights over your colleagues at work for half a season?

We love the hardworking professionals who spend years at our club learning to love it just as much as we do.

For a Leicester supporter given the choice of Steve Walsh or Joe Cole (or some other fancy dan) I have absolutely no doubt who we would take every time.

Every club is the same, they all have their heroes, and pretty much every fan shares the same priorities.

It's the same in our communities. What would most of us want? An engaging and vibrant place to live, work and bring our children up in, or a nation that is top of economic league tables?

I am certain I know the answer. Who wouldn't take a strong community over a comparative measure in relation to other countries?

Mr Blatter treats football as nothing more than a business wanting to access untapped markets rather than considering the views of real fans.

It's funny but Mr Blatter seems to share quite a lot with our government considering their views on decimating our communities whilst prioritising the need to cosy up to big business and bankers.